C IV absorption systems in QSO spectra - Is the character of systems with Z(abs) = about Z(em) different from those with Z(abs) much less than Z(em)?

Details C IV absorption systems in QSO spectra - Is the character of systems with Z(abs) = about Z(em) different from those with Z(abs) much less than Z(em)? C IV absorption systems in QSO spectra - Is the character of systems with Z(abs) = about Z(em) different from those with Z(abs) much less than Z(em)?

Aug 1986

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986apj...307..504f&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 307, Aug. 15, 1986, p. 504-534. Research supported by the University of Ill

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

166

Absorption Spectra, Astronomical Spectroscopy, Quasars, Astronomical Catalogs, Carbon, Emission Spectra, Line Spectra, Red Shift

Scientific paper

We present observations obtained at 1 Å spectral resolution and controlled S/N of a sample of 31 moderate-redshift QSOs in the spectral region containing the C IV λλl548, 1550 emission line. These spectra are analyzed to study the character of C IV absorption systems near the emission-line redshift and at Zabs < zem. The results are compared to those by Weymann, Williams, Peterson, and Turnshek, who observed essentially the same sample photographically, and the results of Young, Sargent, and Boksenberg, who observed an independent sample of comparable size. The observations reported here very strongly suggest that there is a difference in character between absorption complexes near the emission-line red shift and typical intervening absorption systems. We suggest that it is this difference which produces the peak in the C IV absorption-line distribution near the emission-line redshift which was found for this sample by Weymann et al. and which persists in this reobserved sample. At large displacements away from the emission line (v> 5000 km s-1), we find a distribution (presumably arising from intervening absorbing clouds) which is statistically identical to that found by Young, Sargent, and Boksenberg. We further find that it is extremely unlikely that the properties of the systems near the emission-line redshift are a result of sampling from the distributions of the properties of the intervening clouds. We suggest that most of the systems that we see in the vicinity of the emission line are drawn from a population distinct from that giving rise to most of the systems at large displacements. We reiterate the speculation that the population of absorbers responsible for the "associated" systems may represent absorption by clouds in a cluster containing the QSO, but we cannot exclude the possibility that these absorption complexes arise from material which has undergone mild acceleration by the QSO itself. We comment on a possibility that the difference between our results and those of Young, Sargent, and Boksenberg may arise from a difference in the radio properties between the two samples. This may be indicative of a difference in the typical environments of the QSOs in each sample which, in turn, may be responsible for the differences in the properties of the C IV absorption.

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